{"id":458068,"date":"2022-01-26T03:40:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T10:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=458068"},"modified":"2022-01-26T15:52:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T22:52:48","slug":"after-kobe-bryant-helicopter-crash-matt-mauser-has-turned-to-pool-following-death-of-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/after-kobe-bryant-helicopter-crash-matt-mauser-has-turned-to-pool-following-death-of-wife\/","title":{"rendered":"After Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash, Matt Mauser Has Turned to Pool Following Death of Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash, Matt Mauser Has Turned to Pool Following Death of Wife<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years have passed since the tragic helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020 that claimed the life of NBA star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others, including Christina Mauser. From the archive, this is the story of how Mauser’s husband, Matt, used swimming as an outlet in the wake of losing his wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

Diego Pombo<\/strong> was surprised to see the text message in late February 2020. For the previous few weeks, he\u2019d checked in periodically with his friend, Matt Mauser,<\/strong> trying to let Mauser know he was there for him but also give him space to mourn.<\/p>\n

It had been barely a month since Mauser\u2019s wife, Christina, died in the helicopter crash in Calabasas that killed Kobe Bryant<\/strong> and his eldest daughter, Gianna Bryant<\/strong>, among nine total victims; barely a month that Matt had adapted to life as a single father of three children.<\/p>\n

\"SONY

Matt Mauser, right, with son Tom and daughter Penny Rose. Photo Courtesy: Diego Pombo<\/p><\/div>\n

In the moment, he had a request for Pombo, the coach with whom he\u2019d bonded over Masters swimming workouts for the last two years, Mauser\u2019s big personality melding with the focus of the Colombian coach: Would it be OK if he stopped by for an hour or so at the pool that day? And could Diego maybe meet him a little earlier than their usual noon swim, just so he would be in the pool by himself?<\/p>\n

In the darkest days of his grieving process, Mauser found light in the pool. That first day back after a month yielded a slog of only about 1,000 yards, but the distance wasn\u2019t the point. Getting in the water, staring at the black line while his body thrummed away and his mind zoned out, with a trusted friend alongside, that was the respite Mauser needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce she died, it became something that was more than just a hobby,\u201d Mauser said. \u201cIt became my therapy, getting back in the pool and training for the sake of training. \u2026 My one break during the day is go to train at noon with the Masters program. \u201c<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an escape he\u2019s turned to again and again this year, one he credits with helping his family survive a devastatingly challenging year.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pretty yet ferocious\u2019<\/h4>\n

Matt and Christina had been dating for about a month when he figured a trip down memory lane might help his chances. Christina\u2019s younger brother was wrestling for Edison High in Huntington Beach, both of their alma maters about a decade apart, when Matt offered to go with her to pick him up from practice.<\/p>\n

Telling the story 16 years later, Matt evinces the stage presence he\u2019s known for, with a raconteur\u2019s lilt in his voice. Matt conjured up the idea to swing by the athletic hall of fame lining a hallway, a convenient way to accidentally on-purpose show off the plaque honoring him as a player of the year. Just a subtle way to let her know just what kind of athlete she was lucky enough to be palling around with.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she said, \u2018Aw, that\u2019s awesome. That\u2019s cool because that\u2019s me right there, and right there and right there,\u2019\u201d Matt said.<\/p>\n

Sports and music provided the twin pathways of their lives together. Both were standouts on the field: Matt played baseball and water polo until adding swimming his senior year. He\u2019d go on to swim at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Christina (nee Patterson) starred in basketball and volleyball at Edison, then went on to Cal State Fullerton.<\/p>\n

They met through music. Mauser is a guitarist and singer for the Tijuana Dogs, a popular Southern California party band<\/a>, and works as a Frank Sinatra tribute singer. They met at one of Matt\u2019s gigs, and Matt credits Christina with overhauling the band\u2019s operations and online presence, calling her the \u201cbusiness behind my musical ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music also brought them into Kobe Bryant\u2019s orbit. Both taught at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar, where Gianna Bryant went to school. Matt composed music for a children\u2019s podcast Bryant produced<\/a> and acted as his envoy to the world of swimming for a book Bryant developed, what would become<\/a> \u201cGeese are never swans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant was also drawn to Christina<\/a>, who taught physical education and coached basketball at Harbor Day. There was something, Matt recognized, in their shared steeliness on the court<\/a>, the 5-7 heady guard who combined talent with superior work ethic and a passion for coaching \u2013 as Bryant dubbed her<\/a>, Christina was the \u201cMother of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was pretty and yet ferocious,\u201d Mauser said. \u201cShe was kind but you did not want to mess with her. She was sweet and loving and understanding but you get her in a competitive situation, and she was a warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Christina ended up coaching at Bryant\u2019s Mamba Sports Academy and why the 38-year-old was with him that ill-fated Sunday in January. The two strains of life even collided on the day of Christina\u2019s passing: It was only music, with the couple\u2019s eldest daughter Penny Rose<\/strong> due to help Matt record a song to be released on the day of the crash, that kept her at home with him instead of on the chopper with her mother.<\/p>\n

Christina\u2019s spirit is what Matt keeps with him, guiding him in raising the kids. It\u2019s what he hopes to foster in others via the Christina Mauser Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to be able to do is help girls, parents, single parents, who don\u2019t have means but who have a child who has a lot of the qualities that Christina has, someone who\u2019s going to make everyone on the team better, someone who\u2019s going to be not just the best player but also the hardest worker,\u201d Mauser said. \u201cI want to find parents and families that have one of those kids that maybe don\u2019t have the resources, perpetuate Christina\u2019s spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his own way, through the grief process, it\u2019s also the mindset that Mauser takes with him to the pool every time he dives in.<\/p>\n

Swimming back to life<\/h4>\n

In the swirl of grief and mourning, Matt Mauser had a scant few weeks to adjust his new normal to the global reset that is the COVID-19 pandemic. Barely a month after his burying his wife, after getting to establish new routines with the three kids \u2013 Penny Rose,<\/strong> now 14, Tom,<\/strong> 10, and Ivy,<\/strong> 4 \u2013 everything was thrown into disarray again by the encroaching coronavirus.<\/p>\n

From the throng of well-wishers to even just people he\u2019d encounter in daily life, by mid-March, he was down to just himself, the kids and a nanny. \u201cIt\u2019s been horrible,\u201d Mauser said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been really challenging.\u201d All that was before a bout with COVID-19 for all four in early December. Tom got the worst of it, spiking a fever that required a trip to the emergency room, but they\u2019re past the scariest symptoms.<\/p>\n

\"Matt

Matt Mauser Photo Courtesy: Diego Pombo<\/p><\/div>\n

Carving out time has been a struggle. He\u2019s lucky to live on a quiet street, not far from the beach, two sites for adventures for the kids when cabin fever ratcheted up. When his pool shut down for six weeks in March, what he calls some of the darkest days of his year, he\u2019d walk the seven-mile round trip on the Santa Ana River Trail to the sea, just to clear his mind.<\/p>\n

For Mauser, the oasis in his schedule was an hour\u2019s escape to the pool a few times a week.<\/p>\n

Enter Pombo, who has coached Masters swimming for years in California<\/a>. He and Mauser met for the first time at an evening Masters program that Pombo coached with Ocean County Riptide Aquatics in 2018, when Mauser had come to realize how much he missed training and competing. Soon, Pombo added an informal group at noon on weekdays at Los Cab Sports Village in Fountain Valley, just 10 minutes from the Mauser\u2019s house, in addition to evening sessions for what is now Costa Mesa Aquatic Club. The workouts are all about efficiency \u2013 hand paddles and fins, about 3,500 yards in just over an hour, no \u201cgarbage yardage\u201d but sets inspired by Pombo\u2019s observations of legendary coach Dave Salo<\/strong> and executed with a purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Mauser) would say, this is my time to be with the water and push myself and have somebody next to me pushing me,\u201d Pombo said. \u201cWe try not to be too overprotective of Matt and give him his space, and he would appreciate that and he kept coming back a lot more regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Christina\u2019s death and the pandemic, Mauser became one of a dozen or so regulars. Los Cab<\/a> has kept an open door for he and the kids, with time in the water a great opportunity to tire them out and change up the routines. (Penny Rose and Tom both play water polo, in what seems like a perfect convergence of their parents\u2019 athletic skills.)<\/p>\n

Mauser has tried meditation as a coping mechanism, but it doesn\u2019t work for him, the restlessness often overpowering. Swimming, though, delivers the clarity of mind he\u2019s seeking. With the body occupied, engaged to the point of exhaustion, he attains a mental state that blocks out the distractions.<\/p>\n

Often, that brings his mind to his wife \u2013 to the crash, to her absence, to the life they had hoped to build. At a time when the emotional burdens can seem so intractable, their edges prickly and diffuse, having a set on the board and a time window to accomplish it is freeing, a way to replenish his supplies of mental and emotional energy to tackle the other, less black-and-white tasks of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough swimming and having the task at hand of completing whatever the set was and getting through it, I use that as a metaphor for life in a lot of ways,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s helped me train my mind to get through pain, emotional and physical. The act of swimming has become very metaphoric of how I get through so much of this period of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mauser understood from the beginning of his return to the water that it required inviting in pain: The physical pain that comes with a good workout, yes, but also the emotional pain, of being alone with your thoughts and the cold reality of it. He\u2019s blunt about the apprehension he felt about that, especially when the trauma was at its rawest.<\/p>\n

But in the sensory deprivation of the pool, it\u2019s not just that Mauser can check in with his emotions under his terms. There\u2019s also something special about the safe space he\u2019s allowed to do that in. In that way, the training group reminds him of the camaraderie of Cal Poly\u2019s co-ed team.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s why that text to Pombo back in February, what seems a world of challenges ago, wasn\u2019t just for keys to the pool but for a little company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe set, as challenging as it is, the breaks are there and you\u2019re with people. And I don\u2019t think I could\u2019ve done it by myself,\u201d Mauser said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could\u2019ve swum by myself. Being part of a Masters program and having that community of people has really helped me to continue swimming and to kind of work through those moments when I just don\u2019t feel like swimming. \u2026 There\u2019s something about swimming with people that you enjoy being around that is just really rewarding and fun and helps you continue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash, Matt Mauser Has Turned to Pool Following Death of Wife Two years have passed since the tragic helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020 that claimed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":458071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[122077,7],"tags":[11192,126790,126791,126793,126792,126795,50547,48710,126794],"class_list":["post-458068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americas","category-usa","tag-cal-poly","tag-christina-mauser","tag-christina-mauser-foundation","tag-costa-mesa-aquatic-club","tag-diego-pombo","tag-gianna-bryant","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-matt-mauser","tag-orange-county-riptide-aquatics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nAfter 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